English Elective CBSE Class 12
Includes:
● Chapter summaries
● Analysis
● Character studies
● Themes with keywords
● Reference links
Plays
Chandalika
Rabindranath Tagore
Story
Act I
● When Prakriti told Ananda that she was a chandalini, he said that it wasn’t true. If the
clouds of Sravana (July/Aug) are smudged grey, it doesn’t change their nature, or
destroy the virtue of their water. He told her not to humiliate herself as
self-humiliation was a sin, worse than murder.
● Prakriti thinks of these words as a tale of her new birth.
● Ananda came up to Prakriti the other day, at noon when it was blazing hot. She had
been washing the calf at noon. He stood before her in his yellow robes and said ‘Give
me water.’ Prakriti’s heart leapt with wonder, and she started trembling and bowed
before his feet without touching them.
● Ananda tells her that all water is clean and holy that cools our heat and satisfies our
thirst. It was the first time in her life Prakriti had heard such words, and she poured
water into his cupped hands
● Prakriti thinks her caste was drowned and her birth was washed clean by the
boundless sea which flowed in Ananda’s cupped hands
● Mother says she doesn’t understand the magic of their spells, and that they can make a
changeling of the soul. Prakriti says that all these days her mother has never really
known her.
● Prakriti waits by the well for the wayfarer to pass by again
● Prakriti sings a song through which her mother understands that she is a woman, and
by serving she must worship and rule. Women alone can in a moment overstep the
bounds of caste.
, ● Mother reminds her of when the king’s son had forgotten everything in her beauty
when he had come by while deer-hunting. Asks Prakriti why she didn’t go with him.
Prakriti says that he had forgotten she was a human being.
● Mother offers to go to Ananda to cling to his feet and call him. Prakriti does not want
to call him from outside, but rather send a call into his soul.
● Prakriti says she can’t simply sit and watch, she wants her mother to cast spells to
drag Ananda to them.
● Prakriti wants to bring to her side the one who brings all near. Mother says that
Ananda brings them near by strength of their virtue, while she drags them with spells
like beasts
● Prakriti thinks Ananda was daring to say ‘Give me water.’ Considers it his grace,
love. Little words mighty as flame. Filled her days with light, rolled away the black
stone whose weight so long had stopped the fountains of her heart and joy bubbled
forth.
● Some monks of the sangha pass by chanting, Ananda was among them but he did not
turn his head or look towards the well.
● Prakriti says it is not a dream, but a cry of desire that is like a prisoned bird in her
breast, that beats its wings unto death, sinks its teeth into the fibres of my heart, and
will not loosen its grip. It is not only those with no ties (bhikshus) who are real.
● Mother agrees to chant the spells. Her spells are ancient, as old as life and the
primeval earth, and the monks’ mantras are raw things of yesterday
● Prakriti tells her that they remain four months in penance and fasting during the rains
and then they are off. Mother says they are going too far for her to bring them back.
Prakriti insists that she must bring him back no matter the distance.
● Mother gives her a magic mirror which Prakriti should take in her hands and dance,
and Ananda’s shadow will fall on the glass where Prakriti can see what happens to
him
● Mother warns Prakriti that she needs to have the endurance to see the spell through to
the end, because after the spell reaches its height it will cost Mother her life to undo it
Act II
● Prakriti says her heart will broke to see the king of the forest crash to the dust
● Mother says she can still undo the spell even if it takes her life
● Prakriti initially tells her to stop, then changes her mind and says they are too close to
stop, when he comes to her she will blot out his suffering
● Prakriti says the bhikshus are gone to Vaishali, to the monastery
● Ananda’s seat of meditation is shaken
● In the mirror, Prakriti initially saw a pale mist covering the whole sky. Through gaps
in the mist glimmered fire. The mist gathered itself into angry red clusters. Next day
the background was a deep black cloud with lightning. Ananda was standing, his
limbs fenced with flame.
● Seeing that, Prakriti’s blood ran cold and she ran to her mother to stop the spell.
● Her mother was in a deep trance, as if a fire burden in her.
, ● When Prakriti looked in the mirror again, the light was gone and only torment was
seen on Ananda’s face.
● Ananda’s eyes grew red as if he were about to curse, but he managed to trample down
his anger, and instead turned the anger upon himself.
● Prakriti believed it was a great god of creation that had caused Ananda’s suffering and
hers to become a union.
● Through the mirror, Prakriti had seen Ananda fall more deeply under the spell and
become heedless of everything, all the conflict with his soul at an end. There was only
a thoughtless compulsion for him.
● Her mother had told her to make ready. Prakriti had bathed in the river Gambhira, and
in the courtyard had drawn a circle with rice and pomegranate blossoms, vermilion
and seven jewels. She had planted the flags of yellow cloth, placed sandal-paste and
garlands on a brass tray, lit lamps. Put on cloth, sat with her face to the East. On her
left arm, she had tied a bracelet of thread.
● Now she danced the dance of invocation around her circle while Mother worked her
spell in the altar.
● Prakriti did not look in the mirror again, instead chose to listen with her innermost
being.
● There was a storm of his coming.
● She looked into the mirror on her mother’s insistence and flung it away, then told her
mother to undo the spell.
● Ananda had none of the light, radiance, shining purity, heavenly glow he looked worn
and faded. He bore his self’s defeat as a heavy burden, came with a drooping head.
● Prakriti begs for his forgiveness.
● Her mother dies.
● Ananda chants a Buddhist prayer.
Characters
Prakriti
● After her new birth, she is washed clean of her self-degradation and rises up a full
human being with her right to love and to give. Since her own self is the most she can
give, and none are more worthy than the bhikshu who redeemed her, she years to offer
herself to him.
● When Ananda fails to recognise her, she is humiliated, wounded in her newly
awakened sensibility, and determines to drag the monk from his pride of renunciation
to the abjectness of desire for her. She has lost all religious scruple or fear, for she
owed nothing to religion save her humiliation.
● Horrified at the selfish and destructive nature of her desire.
● When she is redeemed for the second time, she is purged of the pride and egoism that
had made her forgot that love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
● Thinks Ananda is the only one who ever recognised her. She wants to be his
handmaid rather than stay bound at the world’s feet.
Includes:
● Chapter summaries
● Analysis
● Character studies
● Themes with keywords
● Reference links
Plays
Chandalika
Rabindranath Tagore
Story
Act I
● When Prakriti told Ananda that she was a chandalini, he said that it wasn’t true. If the
clouds of Sravana (July/Aug) are smudged grey, it doesn’t change their nature, or
destroy the virtue of their water. He told her not to humiliate herself as
self-humiliation was a sin, worse than murder.
● Prakriti thinks of these words as a tale of her new birth.
● Ananda came up to Prakriti the other day, at noon when it was blazing hot. She had
been washing the calf at noon. He stood before her in his yellow robes and said ‘Give
me water.’ Prakriti’s heart leapt with wonder, and she started trembling and bowed
before his feet without touching them.
● Ananda tells her that all water is clean and holy that cools our heat and satisfies our
thirst. It was the first time in her life Prakriti had heard such words, and she poured
water into his cupped hands
● Prakriti thinks her caste was drowned and her birth was washed clean by the
boundless sea which flowed in Ananda’s cupped hands
● Mother says she doesn’t understand the magic of their spells, and that they can make a
changeling of the soul. Prakriti says that all these days her mother has never really
known her.
● Prakriti waits by the well for the wayfarer to pass by again
● Prakriti sings a song through which her mother understands that she is a woman, and
by serving she must worship and rule. Women alone can in a moment overstep the
bounds of caste.
, ● Mother reminds her of when the king’s son had forgotten everything in her beauty
when he had come by while deer-hunting. Asks Prakriti why she didn’t go with him.
Prakriti says that he had forgotten she was a human being.
● Mother offers to go to Ananda to cling to his feet and call him. Prakriti does not want
to call him from outside, but rather send a call into his soul.
● Prakriti says she can’t simply sit and watch, she wants her mother to cast spells to
drag Ananda to them.
● Prakriti wants to bring to her side the one who brings all near. Mother says that
Ananda brings them near by strength of their virtue, while she drags them with spells
like beasts
● Prakriti thinks Ananda was daring to say ‘Give me water.’ Considers it his grace,
love. Little words mighty as flame. Filled her days with light, rolled away the black
stone whose weight so long had stopped the fountains of her heart and joy bubbled
forth.
● Some monks of the sangha pass by chanting, Ananda was among them but he did not
turn his head or look towards the well.
● Prakriti says it is not a dream, but a cry of desire that is like a prisoned bird in her
breast, that beats its wings unto death, sinks its teeth into the fibres of my heart, and
will not loosen its grip. It is not only those with no ties (bhikshus) who are real.
● Mother agrees to chant the spells. Her spells are ancient, as old as life and the
primeval earth, and the monks’ mantras are raw things of yesterday
● Prakriti tells her that they remain four months in penance and fasting during the rains
and then they are off. Mother says they are going too far for her to bring them back.
Prakriti insists that she must bring him back no matter the distance.
● Mother gives her a magic mirror which Prakriti should take in her hands and dance,
and Ananda’s shadow will fall on the glass where Prakriti can see what happens to
him
● Mother warns Prakriti that she needs to have the endurance to see the spell through to
the end, because after the spell reaches its height it will cost Mother her life to undo it
Act II
● Prakriti says her heart will broke to see the king of the forest crash to the dust
● Mother says she can still undo the spell even if it takes her life
● Prakriti initially tells her to stop, then changes her mind and says they are too close to
stop, when he comes to her she will blot out his suffering
● Prakriti says the bhikshus are gone to Vaishali, to the monastery
● Ananda’s seat of meditation is shaken
● In the mirror, Prakriti initially saw a pale mist covering the whole sky. Through gaps
in the mist glimmered fire. The mist gathered itself into angry red clusters. Next day
the background was a deep black cloud with lightning. Ananda was standing, his
limbs fenced with flame.
● Seeing that, Prakriti’s blood ran cold and she ran to her mother to stop the spell.
● Her mother was in a deep trance, as if a fire burden in her.
, ● When Prakriti looked in the mirror again, the light was gone and only torment was
seen on Ananda’s face.
● Ananda’s eyes grew red as if he were about to curse, but he managed to trample down
his anger, and instead turned the anger upon himself.
● Prakriti believed it was a great god of creation that had caused Ananda’s suffering and
hers to become a union.
● Through the mirror, Prakriti had seen Ananda fall more deeply under the spell and
become heedless of everything, all the conflict with his soul at an end. There was only
a thoughtless compulsion for him.
● Her mother had told her to make ready. Prakriti had bathed in the river Gambhira, and
in the courtyard had drawn a circle with rice and pomegranate blossoms, vermilion
and seven jewels. She had planted the flags of yellow cloth, placed sandal-paste and
garlands on a brass tray, lit lamps. Put on cloth, sat with her face to the East. On her
left arm, she had tied a bracelet of thread.
● Now she danced the dance of invocation around her circle while Mother worked her
spell in the altar.
● Prakriti did not look in the mirror again, instead chose to listen with her innermost
being.
● There was a storm of his coming.
● She looked into the mirror on her mother’s insistence and flung it away, then told her
mother to undo the spell.
● Ananda had none of the light, radiance, shining purity, heavenly glow he looked worn
and faded. He bore his self’s defeat as a heavy burden, came with a drooping head.
● Prakriti begs for his forgiveness.
● Her mother dies.
● Ananda chants a Buddhist prayer.
Characters
Prakriti
● After her new birth, she is washed clean of her self-degradation and rises up a full
human being with her right to love and to give. Since her own self is the most she can
give, and none are more worthy than the bhikshu who redeemed her, she years to offer
herself to him.
● When Ananda fails to recognise her, she is humiliated, wounded in her newly
awakened sensibility, and determines to drag the monk from his pride of renunciation
to the abjectness of desire for her. She has lost all religious scruple or fear, for she
owed nothing to religion save her humiliation.
● Horrified at the selfish and destructive nature of her desire.
● When she is redeemed for the second time, she is purged of the pride and egoism that
had made her forgot that love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
● Thinks Ananda is the only one who ever recognised her. She wants to be his
handmaid rather than stay bound at the world’s feet.
